Constance C. Meyer (née Ralph, later Dressler; September 17, 1882 - January 3, 1967) was an English American competitive diver who was the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) women's springboard champion in 1915 and 1917. She was twice runner-up for the AAU springboard diving title; first in 1916 to Aileen Allen and again in 1918 to Thelma Payne. Meyer lived in Portland, Oregon and was a member of the Multnomah Athletic Club under instructor Jack Cody. She also competed in bowling, ice hockey, swimming, tennis and water polo.
Video Constance Meyer
Biography
Meyer was born Constance C. Ralph in England on September 17, 1882. Her family moved to Portland, Oregon during her childhood. Meyer first learned how to swim at the Portland YWCA in 1912. She joined the diving and swimming program at the Multnomah Athletic Club in 1913 under the instruction of Jack Cody. In June 1913, she took first place in a 50-yard swim meet. The first competitive diving event Meyer competed in occurred on August 23, 1913 at the Peninsula Park swim meet. She took first place in the women's "senior diving open", which was open to entrants 16 years and older. Meyer competed in the Multnomah Athletic Club's annual Christmas Day swim meet in 1913. She placed second in a 50-yard event. Meyer joined a Multnomah Athletic Club women's water polo team in October 1913. In March 1915, Meyer joined a fledgling women's ice hockey team in Portland.
The Multnomah Athletic Club was invited to send competitors to the Amateur Athletic Union Diving and Swimming Championships in 1915, which were being held in conjunction with the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, California. Meyer was one the three competitors that represented Multnomah. Meyer won the AAU springboard title on July 19, 1915. Following the her AAU title victory, crowds would gather to watch Meyer practice. During the winter, Meyer re-joined her women's hockey team--which she captained. Meyer took up tennis for the first time in June 1916. She was runner-up in a Multnomah Athletic Club tennis tournament that month. Meyer went to the Los Angeles Athletic Club in Los Angeles, California to defend her AAU diving title on June 29, 1916. She had just five days notice before the event and was originally scheduled to play a tennis match in St. Helens, Oregon on the date of the AAU meet. Meyer placed second, with a score of 351 points, to Los Angeles diver Aileen Allen, who scored 370 points. Later, Allen's title was challenged on the grounds she was a professional diver and should be prohibited from competing in AAU sanctioned events, but no action was taken. Meyer performed in several diving exhibitions in 1916 including the Astoria Regatta, the Happy Canyon Round-Up in Pendleton, Oregon and Frontier Days in Walla Walla, Washington. During the Multnomah Athletic Club's Christmas Day swim in 1916, Meyer was scheduled to dive from the Morrison Bridge to the Willamette River. If the river was iced over, the club would to perform the third act of Uncle Tom's Cabin, in which Meyer would play "Eliza" crossing the ice on the Willamette.
In January 1917, Meyer played a match of ice tennis against Irene Campbell, which was the first of its kind in Oregon. The match was conceived by William F. Scott, manager of the Portland Ice Arena, who intended to make the sport a regular fixture of pre-game festivities at ice hockey games. Campbell defeated Meyer, 6-3. The Multnomah Athletic Club was awarded the hosting duties of the AAU Women's National Diving Championships in 1917. During her training for the event, Meyer broke her ear drum. No national diving competitors made the trek to Oregon so the AAU title meet--which took place on May 19--was staged exclusively with state-wide participants, most of them who represented the host club. Meyer placed first in the event ahead of second place finisher Helen Hicks and third place finisher Thelma Payne. Meyer followed-up her AAU title victory with a second place finish during a diving meet at the 1917 Rose Festival in Portland. Meyer took first place at the 10 foot springboard event during the 1917 Pacific Coast Indoor Diving Championships on July 27 at Idora Park in Oakland, California. During the event, she introduced a new diving form called the "volplane". Following her Pacific Coast title victory, Meyer issued a challenge to national divers. On September 3, 1917, Meyer won a diving contest at the Astoria Regatta. That year, she began training for competitive high diving events from 16 and 24 foot platforms.
Meyer's first diving competition of 1918 was the Oregon State Diving Championship at the Multnomah Athletic Club on January 12. She placed first with a score of 133.5. In March 1918, Meyer moved to Tacoma, Washington, but continued to compete under the auspices of the Multnomah Athletic Club. Two months later, a notice of separation was published in The Oregonian by Constance's husband, William N. Meyer. Constance Meyer returned to competitive diving in May 1918 to train for the upcoming AAU Women's Diving Championship, which was scheduled for July 20 at the Multnomah Athletic Club. Thelma Payne won the AAU Championship, with Meyer coming in second. Meyer and Payne represented the Multnomah Athletic Club at the 1918 Pacific Coast Diving Championship in Victoria, British Columbia on August 24. Payne again bested Meyer for the title.
Meyer's husband was granted divorce from her on March 21, 1919 on grounds of "desertion". Meyer had been training for the 1919 AAU title meet, but bowed out when the venue was switched from the Los Angeles Athletic Club in California to the Detroit Athletic Club in Michigan. The only diver the Multnomah Athletic Club sent to 1919 AAU Diving Championship was Thelma Payne, who was the reigning title holder. Meyer was struck on the heel by an automobile at the corner of Third avenue and Alder street in Portland on March 23, 1919. The driver, N. J. Braunstein, was arrested after Meyer complained to the police and he was ordered to pay a $10 fine to the American Red Cross. On May 3, 1919, Meyer competed in the 10 foot springboard event during the Pacific Northwest Indoor Diving Championship at the Multnomah Athletic Club in Portland. During the 1919 Rose Festival in Portland, Meyer performed a diving exhibition. Her next competitive diving meet came on July 4, 1919 during the Far West Diving Championship at Neptune Beach in Alameda, California. She placed second in the event behind Aileen Allen, diver for the Los Angeles Athletic Club. A later review of the scores by The Oregonian alleged that one of the judge's score was tallied wrong, which cost Meyer first place. Meyer also competed in that year's Pacific Coast Outdoor Diving Championship in Victoria, British Columbia, but again came in second behind teammate Thelma Payne. Meyer returned to Victoria, British Columbia on September 22, 1919 to perform for Edward VIII, Prince of Wales, during his tour of Canada, but the event was scrapped when the prince left for a hunting trip.
On December 23, 1919, Meyer married Lou C. Dressler in Vancouver, Washington. Meyer--who was eight years older than Dressler--declined to give her age on the marriage documents. Instead, she listed her age as "legal". In 1920, Meyer was hired to oversee swimming at the Columbia River beach in Portland. Meyer's name was mentioned as a possible 1920 Summer Olympics contender, but she did not attend the qualifying event. She competed in the 1920 Far West Diving Championship on June 26 at Neptune Beach in Alameda, California, where she placed third in the springboard event. Meyer continued to compete sporadically in diving events until at least 1922, including that year's Oregon State Outdoor Diving Championship at the Oaks Natatorium in Sellwood, Portland, Oregon. She placed first in the Oregon State Indoor Diving Championship at the Multnomah Athletic Club in Portland on March 11, 1922.
Legacy and later life
Meyer was credited by her teammate Thelma Payne as sparking her interest in diving when she witnessed Meyer perform at the Portland YWCA. Meyer was also the first pupil of Jack Cody to win a national title. Cody, who went on to train several Olympic swimmers and divers, is in the International Swimming Hall of Fame as a coach. In 1922, DeWitt Harry for The Oregonian called Meyer the "grittiest and most daring amateur woman divers". She was critical of the excessive clothing women divers and swimmers were required to wear for modesty. She would wear a one-piece swimsuit when the event permitted its use instead of the traditional skirt swimsuit that was ubiquitous of the time. In 1918, Meyer told the publication Sweater News: The Journal of the Sweater and Fancy Knit Goods Trade, "Were it not for the handicap of too much clothing, more women would be heard from in this sport. [...] Public opinion has hampered the popularity of the skirtless bathing suit more than anything else. I think women would generally accept it were it not for criticism." Meyer designed her own swimsuit and it was manufactured by the Olympia Woolen Mills in Olympia, Washington. Meyer and her husband eventually moved to San Mateo County, California where they lived together until his death in 1946. She died on January 3, 1967 at the age of 84 and was interned at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California.
Record
- Bowling
- Swimming
- Diving
§Miscalculations in one judge's score cost Meyer first place, according to The Oregonian.
- Tennis
Maps Constance Meyer
References
Source of article : Wikipedia
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